Rumor mill gets rolling on next Nexus handset

Let a picture of an apparent prototype tide you over until the next rumor.

With Samsung's Galaxy S 4 revealed and Google I/O just a few months away, the rumor mill has shifted its focus to what the next Nexus device might bring. An anonymous source has leaked what he claims is a photo of a Nexus prototype to Android and Me.

According to the leak, Google plans to release its next Nexus handset in October of this year, about a year after LG's Nexus 4 hit the scene. The manufacturer of the next Nexus handset is not known, but the source claims that Google is evaluating a number of prototypes from various manufacturers, including LG, which has apparently labeled its Nexus project "Megalodon." The handset is purported to have a 5.2-inch OLED display with 1080p resolution, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of internal storage, not to mention a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera. Some rumors also point to the camera lens being manufactured by Nikon.

The specifications list essentially maps out what we'd hope to see in smartphones coming out later this year. And as with any rumor, it should be taken with several grains of salt.

Florence Ion
Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.

I was hoping that they'd tap Motorola for their next Nexus device. As for the specs, it's always pretty much whatever high-end components are available at the time of release. Google has straight up said that the next device will have a high-end camera, so you can definitely look forward to that, though 16MP seems a bit silly, when really just a better 8MP would make people happy.

Okay, can officially say that the screen sizes are getting out of hand yet? They are inching their way up and up. Its enough already,

People keep complaining about this, but it's the nature of 'flagship' devices. Highest resolution, fastest CPU, most RAM, etc. If you want a sub 4" device, the market is loaded with them, take your pick.

bigstrat2003 wrote:

Please, for the love of God, put a microSD slot in this one. That is literally my only beef with the Nexus devices.

Okay, can officially say that the screen sizes are getting out of hand yet? They are inching their way up and up. Its enough already,

I hope so. The last Nexus device wouldn't work for me because it's GSM only, and that basically doesn't exist here. And if the next one is 5.2" it's out because it's too big. I admit I have a GS3 and like it, but this thing is as big as I want to go, it's the upper limit.

If it has LTE, it will most likely be T-Mobile (US) and AT&T flavors. It might go out of its way to include more support for other bands, but good luck getting Google to go anywhere near Verizon after the Galaxy Nexus crap.

I was hoping that they'd tap Motorola for their next Nexus device. As for the specs, it's always pretty much whatever high-end components are available at the time of release. Google has straight up said that the next device will have a high-end camera, so you can definitely look forward to that, though 16MP seems a bit silly, when really just a better 8MP would make people happy.

It's probably a bit too soon for a new Moto-Nexus. Google management recently stated that when they completed the merger Moto had an 18mo pipeline of underwhelming hardware that they were stuck with. Assuming that dates to when the deal was completed last May that means it's going to be sometime next year before any new Google driven designs are released.

I'm curious, does Nikon have any previous experience in manufacturing cellphone camera sensors? Most of their cheaper 1/1.7 and APS-C sensors are actually made by Sony, which incidentally also makes most of the cellphone sensors on the planet.

Them getting out of the way to design and fabricate a sensor for one phone sounds improbable.

Unfortunately, a huge chunk of their potential buyers don't live in places with ubiquitous WiFi -- or even 100% cell coverage and unlimited data plans -- so they can store everything in "the cloud." Sure, loads of internal memory would be great. 64GB would do it for me, but not at $150 premium for an extra 32GB (or whatever the inflated price ends up being.)

It might not be any larger than the Nexus 4. Look at the super thin bezel in the picture. It could be like the GS4 which has a larger screen but is smaller than the GS3.

That doesn't remove all of the disadvantages with a large screen, though. It's still harder to navigate by one hand - something I gave up with the S III, though. (It still works, but it's very clumsy as you need to change grips now and then - with one hand). That would be even harder with a 5.2" screen vs ~4.7-4.8" as the Nexus 4/S III are...

3 GB RAM would be very welcome, though. I feel the 1 GB of the international S III isn't quite enough for real multitasking, as apps generally close if I try to switch between 2-3 non-tiny ones.

Can we please stop the screen size creep on high end phones. I know they are shrinking the bezels to try to keep the overall size under control but at this rate we'll have 7 inch phones in a couple years. Yeah, you can still by phones with smaller screens but almost all of them also sacrifice other features. Few, if any, have the same top end specs for processor, memory, supported cell techs etc. They also seem to be more likely to be ignored by MFGs when it comes to future OS updates.

It's not even a hand size thing. Even small asian girls can use the GS3 just fine.

It's just a matter of learning to use a different grip. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't put commonly used buttons on the top-left (furthest from your thumb) so practically you can one-hand a GS3 just fine.

3 GB of RAM seems excessive, although RAM is cheap. I almost never run into any issues with the 2 GB in my Nexus 4, although Key Lime Pie may introduce some changes that would necessitate more RAM.

16 MP camera? I highly doubt it. 13 MP is still pretty rare in flagship phones, and Google has acknowledged that the quality of cameras in smartphones needs to improve. That comes from better sensors and software processing, not by cramming in more pixels and introducing even more noise.

5.2" screen? Urgh. Enough with the size race. Yes, I realize that having a larger screen makes media consumption easier. Videos look great, webpages are bigger, etc. However, as I've watched the size of my smartphone screens move from 3.2" to 4.3" to 4.7", it's become more and more difficult to use my phone one-handed. I still like my devices to be pocketable, and just making it thinner doesn't meet that need. The fact that Google kept the screen size the same from the Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 4 makes me think/hope they've realized this same thing.

Finally, with LTE, it wasn't included in the Nexus 4 because there was no single-solution chip capable of supporting the patchwork of LTE frequencies used around the world. With the new chip recently announced by Qualcomm, hopefully this will allow for worldwide LTE coverage under a single SKU. Fingers crossed.

Finally, with LTE, it wasn't included in the Nexus 4 because there was no single-solution chip capable of supporting the patchwork of LTE frequencies used around the world. With the new chip recently announced by Qualcomm, hopefully this will allow for worldwide LTE coverage under a single SKU. Fingers crossed.

Eh, I'm not sure if that's really what it was. The only thing stopping it from working OFFICIALLY on certain networks and bands in North America is a little extra power management. Unofficially, the Nexus 4 works with LTE in some places in Canada, a few fringe cases on AT&T in the US, and probably in plenty of places on T-Mobile. It just never would have been a consistent feature, but basically all of the hardware is already in there to do it.

The fact that LG/Google didn't bother to have it enabled is kind of puzzling to me.

I agree with Google's beef with Verizon, no one wants their bloatware, but as a Verizon customer I would throw my money at a Nexus phone.

The Galaxy Nexus on Verizon is a great phone, if you hack it, that being said, As a Verizon customer the nexus program runs counter to some key policy decisions by Verizon. The bootloader came locked, but unencrypted, and easy to unlock. Every phone VZW carries has a locked and encrypted bootloader later, and unless you pay full price for the "developer" edition. If you look at the S3, every carrier came with an unecrypted version except for VZW.

Also, if I hadn't put CM10 on my nexus, I'd still be (at the time of this writing), 3 updates behind the official GSM nexus. Even though it's a nexus, Verizon still holds controls over updating, which is just awful. In actuality, there's other phones on Verizon's network that are officially supplied with newer versions of android than the nexus, and that's wrong.

It sucks, hard, that the network is so fantastic, but the policy decisions are so draconian. The bloatware is actually my mildest complaint about Verizon.